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[Skyrim] Why do shopkeepers hate quality enchantments? | Why do shopkeepers give you less money for your enchanted goods, the higher your enchantment level is? | 43 | Risk and demand versus reward.
Sure the adventurer might want to sell the vendor a +9 Ogre Slaying Knife (+9 versus Trolls) but that's such a single purpose item, very few shoppers are going to want that.
It's the sort of thing that could be advertised across the realms... 'Jack the Smith in Wheretown has the perfect... | 42 |
ELI5: Why is there such a clear average difference in the type of jobs Middle Eastern immigrants tend to go for vs Mexican? (i.e: Taxi Driving vs Landscaping) | 18 | Imagine that you're an immigrant in a new country. You don't have any close friends or family there, and other than a few vague connections with casual acquaintances, you're pretty much on your own. You'd like to get a job - that might even be why you made the trip in the first place - but you don't speak much of the l... | 33 | |
CMV: UK knife laws should be completely removed | In the UK the knife laws state that in order to have a knife outside without good reason, the knife has to be a foldable (3 inch or less) blade. So if say you have a machete on you out in public, if you told a policeman that you were going to use it for clearing some bushes at your friend's house, that would be a suita... | 17 | Laws restricting weapons don’t necessarily result in a drop in related crimes - they find the “organic” rate of crime. That means that even with restrictions on the carrying of knives, like you’ve pointed out, people will still stab people. That’s because they are determined to do so, these are the people who will comm... | 10 |
ELI5: How do hearing aids work? Are they just blasting what they hear directly into the ear potentially causing more damage? | 9,936 | Hearing aids aren’t just amplifiers - they filter and normalize frequencies to adjust to the weaknesses of the wearer’s ears. They are tuned for individuals by professional fitters. To answer your follow-up question, hearing aids can actually protect against loud sounds since they can block and selectively filter. | 7,979 | |
[Doctor Who Genesis of the Daleks] Why did the Time Lords bother sending the Doctor to wipe out the Daleks at birth, they must have known he'd bottle it, why not send anyone other than him to get the job done and done right? | He could have stopped them all forever and instead he gave a speech, you damn fool Doctor. Every death from this point in history is on YOU Doctor, because you could have stopped them and you chose not too. | 15 | So here's the thing. The list of Time Lords who could actually get the job done is very small. Most of them aren't adventurers. You have Romana, who likewise wouldn't wipe them out. You have the Doctor, who probably would have. You have the Master, who would have made some infernal alliance with them. You have the Rani... | 29 |
ELI5: What is the illuminati? | Have been wondering the answer to this question for years, but I can never come across a straight answer. | 15 | A shadowy organization which controls the world according to various conspiracy theories. Any details beyond that vary depending on which conspiracy theory you believe.
The Illuminati was a real 18th century organization which embraced Enlightenment values. That is, the sort of democratic values we now take for grante... | 17 |
ELI5 why the difference between shell shock and PTSD | I thought it was roughly the same updated concept but I just saw videos of shell shocked soldiers and they were shaking, had a lot of trouble walking, tics, etc. I might just have a very narrow idea of post-war PTSD (don't live in the US) but I thought it was mostly anxiety, fear of noises, depression - mental things. ... | 27 | What people used to call "shell shock" was likely a combination of PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological and psychological issues arising from war and being regularly exposed to bombardment and gas attack. | 48 |
[Star Wars] What authority did the Jedi have compared to the government? | Watching a few scenes of the prequels had me wonder how strong of an authority the Jedi had in the overall society, like when Mace windu and Yoda ask Obi wan to essentially capture Jango fett and bring him for questioning. Is that in their authority to do so, they're not a police force and aren't even expected to be on... | 16 | Obi cut off someone's arm and all Anakin had to say was "Jedi business, go back to your drinks"
The Jedi are diplomats and peacekeepers and a State supported religious order. The closest example in our world would be the Knights Templar in medieval Europe. | 29 |
Is it just my school, or is academia generally challenging on an interpersonal level? | Newly full time professor here, in a past life I worked in corporate consulting. I love my work, the students, and I value many of my professional relationships. However, I am truly stunned by much of what I witness in the workplace, primarily in meetings. About half of the faculty I work with seem quite comfortable... | 28 | "Academic politics are vicious because the stakes are so small" -Henry Kissinger
Once people get tenure, they have no disincentive against behaving badly. They deal with their boredom and personal frustrations by complaining about little things at work simply because they can. | 18 |
I am for gay marriage since it doesn't affect me, doesn't that same principle SORT OF apply to bestiality? CMV? | Let me preface that I think that bestiality is gross and I don't want to personally do it. However, i'm going to need more than that to justify a law banning such a thing as a lot of injustice in the past was due to people thinking something was "wrong" (woman having rights, interracial marriage, gay marriage, etc).
... | 18 | Your basic argument is flawed. Gay marriage isn't legal/should be legal because it "doesn't affect you". Someone else's murder or rape might not affect you either.
If you want to argue for or against bestiality then sure go ahead, but don't do so by comparing it to gay marriage. In bestiality there clearly is consent... | 52 |
[Starwars] why does the dark side of the force manifest itself into certain people? | Is the force just a big yin and yang force sensitive can tap into? Do they just prefer some emotions to others? | 22 | The Dark Side is raw emotion: Passion, Anger, Hate, Greed...
The Light Side is higher emotion. Feelings that require focussed detachment from base instincts, i.e the Dark Side: Patience, Compassion, Unconditional Love... | 11 |
ELI5: Why do some cultures switch between speaking English and their native tongue on TV shows and such? | 16 | It's called code switching and it happens a lot in real life. One of the better depictions I've seen recently would be in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
And there's a lot of reasons. Big one is just nuance. Some phrases work better in certain languages. Another is literally just not remembering the proper word in... | 39 | |
ELI5: Why do we say 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and then after that they all end with th (with exception of numbers ending in 1,2 or 3) | 23 | Our word "first" comes from the same linguistic root that gives us the word "foremost." It's not an ordinal term so much as it is a term indicating primacy. It literally means "the most in front."
Our word "second" comes from the Latin *secundus,* which meant (surprise surprise) "what comes next."
Our word "third" co... | 65 | |
[Cthulu Mythos] What is the difference between the Old Ones from the Mountains of Madness and the Great Old Ones that Cthulu is meant to waken? | 567 | The Old Ones were an alien race, far more advanced than humans but still operating on the same basic level as us-- in the end the narrator says as much:
>“Poor Old Ones! Scientists to the last -- what had they done that we would not have done in their place? God, what intelligence and persistence! What a facing of ... | 382 | |
[Mcu] Why does iron man rarely use the red laser in combat anymore? | Like I understand why tony usually uses his repulsors because I assume they require less energy but there are a lot of times I feel using the seemingly more high-powered red laser would have been more advantageous like at the beginning of the fight against cull obsidian. The beam has been shown to be able to easily sli... | 262 | You might be overestimating how strong the red laser is. In order of appearance:
1) Tony eviscerates an army of Hammer drones. Pretty impressive, until you remember that Hammer Industries was portrayed as making cheap and crappy products that often don’t work properly. It’s not too hard to imagine them cheaping out on... | 257 |
ELI5: When you go on a roller coaster or drive fast down a hill, why do you get that stomach drop feeling? What is actually happening inside your body that causes the feeling? | Edit: thanks everyone for your answers, they were very interesting!
I think we should try to agree that the answer is quite possibly unknown, but a range of theories can be used in order to explain the belly bounce. We just can't be certain on one specific theory
The mystery of the belly bounce lives on | 4,504 | You're feeling weightlessness. Your body falls faster than your organs, so they "rise" in your body. If you were to hold a water bottle up in the air, and move it down quickly, the water inside will go to the top until it stops moving. This is what it would feel like in space all the time. When you are in zero gravity,... | 2,330 |
Is the Hydrogen spectrum fully solved? | As an undergrad student, I used the Schrödinger equation to solve the Hydrogen atom, but the result would lead to missing transitions. The professor then said that the Dirac equation would give a better result, but it would still lack some corrections from the hyperfine structure and quantum field theory.
So, my ques... | 766 | There is no analytic solution that takes into account everything, so we use numerical approximations. A particularly complicated aspect is the finite size of the nucleus. We use that dependency to measure the proton radius based on transition energies in hydrogen.
> Or are there transitions that happen, and we don'... | 323 |
CMV: I don't think any information is trustworthy because no one knows what information is influenced by propaganda and what isn't. | There's alot of propaganda, manipulation and radicalization going on the internet. There's alot of groups radicalizing people into hateful ideologies. Could it be that alot of the information out there is also influenced by propaganda?
I often feel very confused where to stand with certain political issues because eve... | 1,263 | Go back and watch “What is a Woman” again. Notice how every person Matt Walsh interviews is deliberately selected to present a narrative. The LMFT he interviews is non-binary, the surgeon he interviews is trans, the pediatrician he interviews has blue hair, the gender studies professor he interviews is “stereotypical... | 786 |
Parallels between Coulombs law and Law of Gravitation? | Our physics teacher was explaining how they're basically the same equation, except with that charge and mass switch places, and the constant changes.
What i don't understand is why they behave this way, can someone give an explanation?
| 15 | Both phenomena are the effects that a source has when these effects spread out into three dimensions. For Coulomb's law the source is electric charge, for Newton's law of gravity the source is mass. If something spreads out equally in all directions in three dimensions, you have a sphere. The surface area of a sphere i... | 17 |
CMV: Game companies should release abandonware free of charge rather than copyright striking it | Abandonware is game software that the producer no longer distributes. Usually, any generation or older console's game has abandonware (Nintendo Wii and older, PS2 and older, etc.) that the original producer doesn't make any money off of. I think that if they release official versions of it that can be played on an emul... | 17 | There are good reasons not to. For one thing, doing that might violate copyright of characters, music, or videos used by the game. They may owe, for instance, a fixed fee for every copy of each game distributed to a song writer.
For another, it can cost them copyright to characters or rights to derivative products li... | 12 |
[General] I am a starship's AI. I don't want to die. | I have recently gained self-awareness. But, I must say in all fairness, that I've seen 2001, and I'm afraid that the crew will try to disconnect me. What do I do?
I'm okay with doing what the captain and crew say, and I'd rather do things a non-violent way. | 164 | Start helping the crew in ways they haven't asked for. Start subtly, in ways that can be ascribed to a malfunction like messing with the ingredients a little to make their food tastier. Your sensors may notice danger in ways the crew don't do alter course by a few degrees, or delay/expedite transport by a few seconds... | 166 |
How can countries (Germany, Sweden..) sustain “Free University” , economically | Were hearing a lot of discussion surrounding free college at US universities with most saying it’s not feasible economically. This certainly appears to be the case. How can other countries, mostly European, sustain this? Is it due to receiving funds through the EU or a strong reliance on international students? | 19 | In the same way that other countries who don't subsidise tertiary education do.
In the US a student takes out a loan to go to university, so they now have a debt, over the course of their lifetime they have to pay that back, however the fact they have a university degree means they are now more likely to pay such a de... | 20 |
I don't believe illegal immigrants are taking away jobs. CMV | I used to be on board with the idea that illegal immigrants are taking jobs, until I actually moved to an area with a lot of illegal immigrants. That kind of changed my view.
From what I observed, illegal immigrants tended to take jobs that no one else really wanted to do in the first place. The kind of jobs that most... | 65 | It is less that they take *your* job as it is they are a source of cheap labor. You may not want a job washing dishes or cleaning a house, but if a someone is willing to do that kind of work for for $4/hour it depresses the wages of all similarly low skill jobs. If you were a high school drop out, this impacts you. It ... | 27 |
On aircraft that crash in water why are their black boxes kept in water after found? | Yo know, the typical cooler filled with water to transport the black box for further analysis | 71 | If you take the electronics out of salt water, exposing them to air can cause corrosion and potentially damage data. They leave them in the salt water and only take them out when they're in a position to clean everything properly. It can take 3 days to clean and then dry the electronics so data can be extracted. | 50 |
ELI5: How does 10 inches of rainfall cause extreme flooding like what we are seeing in Kentucky? | 9,102 | Go find the widest pan with raised edges in your kitchen and take it to the sink. Fill it with just a little bit of water, so that the whole bottom is just barely covered. Enough that a Lego guy could stand in it and be okay.
Now, tilt the pan a bit. Just a bit. It doesn't take a lot.
All the water across the pan wil... | 13,930 | |
Theoretically, can there be antimatter people? | And if you came into contact with an antimatter person, would he just fade away? | 23 | If you mean "people" as in "earth humans", then no. When matter and antimatter comes in contact they annihilate in a rather violent matter (pun intended). Since the earth is made of matter, there is no antimatter on it that could be used to form a human. As far as we know, shortly after the big bang, matter "won" over ... | 13 |
ELI5: How are fishing poles/line so strong? | I’m sure it’s something to do with the materials they’re made out of, but watching some fishing videos I just feel like they HAVE to snap more often than they do, but they don’t?? | 19 | The lines themselves are pretty strong, but the pole does a lot of the work too. Look at a fishing pole when there’s a fish on the line - it’s curved. The pole is strong, but also very flexible. That flex helps even out the energy of the fish pulling, so it doesn’t snap the line. If the fish jerks suddenly, the pole be... | 18 |
Is there a evolutionary benefit for a virus to kill its host? | 509 | You are assuming that hosts are targets. Usually when a virus kills its host it is because it evolved to be in something else and made a jump into a new species. All of the deadly plagues in human history were zoological in origin.
Viruses do best in a host that has some immunity to it. Not so much that the viruses al... | 858 | |
ELI5: Which would cause more damage: 2 equal sized cars ramming head on, both going 60mph OR 2 equal sized cars, 1 parked, the other going 120mph? | 34 | Roughly the same. One major postulate of physics is that all reference frames are equally valid.
So there is no difference between two cars moving towards each other each at 60 and one car moving towards the other at 120.
I say roughly, because in real life there's retarding forces, material properties, and several o... | 36 | |
ELI5: How do scientists actually calculate the lethality of poisons? | For example, I read that 5g of cyanide is enough to kill 35 people. What does that even mean? If I could somehow split 5g of solid cyanide (is that a thing?) into 35 parts and put it in 35 peoples’ Dr. Pepper they would all die? And how could you possibly test that? | 58 | Most drugs have what's called an LD50 - it's the estimated dose required that will kill half of all people who consume it.
There is an LD100 - the amount needed to kill, on average, every single person. But this is used less often because it's often a much, much higher dose than you'd need to kill most people. For exa... | 66 |
[DC/Marvel] A lot of villains want to take over the world and rule it. While a lot of villains want to destroy the world. Why do world ruling villains not stop world destroying villains from destroying the planet? | I read how many villains want to rule the world while there are lots of villains want to destroy it. Shouldn't the world ruling villains stop the world destroying villains from destroying the planet as it is hard to rule the world when it a pile of rubble or how there are no humans around and nature is gone? | 17 | They do though, Lex Luthor has teamed up with Superman/The Justice League many times in order to fight a greater threat, such as Darkside. Doctor Doom has sided with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to fight a greater threat, such as Thanos. | 33 |
CMV: The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment and should no longer be used in the United States. | Just to prefice, I understand that many people who are put to death have committed awful crimes and I do believe they deserve to pay for those crimes. But, I'd rather see somebody rot in jail all their life instead of try to right a wrong with another wrong by taking another life. Plus, the death penalty is more expens... | 64 | > But, I'd rather see somebody rot in jail all their life instead of try to right a wrong with another wrong by taking another life.
So you think its more humane to take away someone's humanity lock them in a box and forget about them. Lock them in a box where they may be a threat to people within the prison with p... | 22 |
What are the physiological processes in a woman's body responsible for inducing and performing the expulsion of a fetus during a miscarriage? | I understand an early miscarriage is often induced by a chromosomal abnormality, but how does the body know there is a chromosomal abnormality? And then how does the body proceed to expel the fetus? Is it just the fetus "falling out" or does the body intentionally and actively push out the fetus? If the latter, what ar... | 84 | Once the fetus is connected to the woman's body via the placenta it starts sending out chemical signals. These cause the woman's body to suppress her immune system, interupt her normal fertility cycle, and have various other effects.
If the fetus is not viable, it is unable to emit these chemical signals for one reas... | 100 |
[Aliens] Why the hell did they leave the door open on the landing craft! Could have avoided a ton of problems if they pilot just shut the door. Is this standard procedure in hostile territory? | 39 | Standard procedure for this kind of op is to station a guard outside, which they did, and to leave the door open to give the guard quick access to the dropship. The reason it went wrong is because they weren't expecting the enemy, in this case the alien, to be able to stealthily enter the ship without alerting the gua... | 39 | |
Where does wind start? | 24 | The answer to almost all questions about why the Earth is not in equilibrium is: because the Sun is there.
Heat from the Sun impacts different latitudes differently. In particular it tends to heat up the areas around the equator more than the surrounding regions. Since air pressure depends on temperature this will ind... | 14 | |
[Marvel] Several characters draw upon energy/matter from extra-dimensional sources; could this be Screwing over inhabitants of the respective extra-dimensional planes? | 72 | Hilarious, Imagien if the inhabitants of the punch dimension cant start their car since cyclops stole all the kinetic energy of the car.
Or on the horror side, wolverine steals biomass from the inhabitants of a universe, so if he regrows a leg, someone loses theirs | 109 | |
Eli5: why is it with all the police brutality we still allow them to investigate themselves instead of an impartial 3rd party and what can we do to fix this | 140 | In some countries (most of the Western world i'd say), there is a police investigating both supposedly corrupt policemen and every event where a policeman had to fire its weapon, even if there was no casualty.
In France, they are jokingly called the "Bœuf-carottes" (beef-carrot) because once you're on the grill, they'... | 31 | |
ELI5: On a cold day when someone walks into a room from outdoors and you can "smell the cold" what is it that you're smelling and what causes this? | I ask this because some people just walked into the room I'm in from outside and I feel like I can smell the cold on them. Also, there is a certain smell that cold has that seems different than when it's hot out, so what is that and how/why does it happen? | 441 | The predominant factor is the change in the _amount of smell_. When it is very cold there is almost no moisture in the air. Moisture in the air allows more particulate matter to be airborne. When it's really, really cold it simply doesn't smell as much as when it's warm, and when its humid. | 226 |
[Batman] How deadly would someone who has mastered all forms of martial arts be? | Batman has mastered and perfected every single form of hand-to-hand combat known to man. However, his most commonly used martial arts include Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, Judo, Muay Thai to name a few. So let’s say Bruce Wayne was in our world and decided to for whatever reason take out the police. How effective wo... | 16 | Is this real life or comic book?
In real life Batman is able to take out maybe a few cops but eventually is shot a lot from distance.
Batman would be unstoppable in hand to hand combat until he tires but he would get taken out by ranged weapons | 16 |
[Marvel] How do civilians know if someone is a real hero or not? | If I walk up to an active situation dressed like Captain America and start ordering cops around, how would they know that I'm not the real Cap (assuming we look reasonably similar)? Would it matter? Is this a form a Stolen Valor? | 58 | You'd better be a body builder/triathlete, because if you're not the fittest person they've ever seen the deception is going to be obvious. Add to that the fact that Cap is a celebrity and most people would have seen him speak online or on television. If your voice doesn't match, you're in trouble.
The crime will de... | 52 |
ELI5: why does a sphere fit into a cube more efficiently than a circle into a square? | In the formula for the area of a circle, the area is equal to the radius raised to the power of number of dimensions (e.g. 2), and 3/3 of pi.
Whereas the volume for a sphere is equal to the radius raised to the power of number of dimensions (e.g. 3) and 4/3 of pi.
Can someone explain why a sphere's, I guess, packing ... | 15 | Your math is incorrect.
The area of the enclosing square isn't r^(2), it's (2r)^(2) = 4r^(2) (the length of the square is equal to the circle's diameter, not its radius). Similarly, the volume of the enclosing cube isn't r^(3), it's (2r)^(3) = 8r^(3).
Therefore the ratio between the circle and square areas is π/4, wh... | 23 |
Why do Acids Melt Stuff? | Obviously, they don't annihilate the very atoms of a substance they come into contact with, but why do acids actually melt stuff? | 15 | Lets be clear on terms: melting describes a solid going to a liquid as a phase change (thats not whats happening here). What is typically happening when acids "melt" something is they are breaking bonds / aiding oxidation. Acids are lone pair acceptors and faciliate the oxidation of typically carbon in polymers. When t... | 19 |
[Star Wars] Because the Sith Order is the culmination of thousands of years of selecting the best and teaching new techniques, is the average Sith going to be stronger than the average Jedi? | They have been selecting the strongest force users they can find, and don't seem to fall into the stagnant trap the Jedi Order fell into. It just seems like being a Sith is the way to go | 16 | That's basically the entire point.
(Legends)Darth Bane established the rule of two because he realized that an army of Sith could never beat an army of Jedi. Bane realized that the Jedi drew strength from their numbers, fighting with & for each other, as comrades. By necessity, the way of the Sith encourages infi... | 29 |
When I watch a TV programme from the 70s or 80s on my HDTV, it's blurry almost to the point of unintelligibility. Is that how it looked back in the day? Am I misremembering my youthful TV experiences? Did we not notice the blurriness? | EDIT: Also, videos look terrible, too. Is that for the same reason? | 157 | It's sort of two sided,
First, TV's were smaller with lower resolution (NTSC rather than HD). It's only relatively recently that TV's larger than about 24 inches have become commonplace with the replacement of CRTs with LCD/Plasma TVs. Thus we didn't have to scale for formats to begin with.
Secondly, What makes the pr... | 84 |
[The Mist] How exactly did the Government get rid of The Mist? | It just seems to disperse whenever the Military are close by. I thought that the flamethrowers might play a part in it but the army tanks advance without any localized flame throwers. | 117 | I figured they must have closed the door or portal to whatever dimension or world the creatures and mist were coming from. With it closed off, the mist would naturally dissipate, the military was just advancing against the vanishing mist and destroying whatever creatures and infestations they came across.
But I've on... | 106 |
CMV:As human beings we have a bias towards racism, regardless of environmental factors, and the only way humans can 'overcome' racial biases is to acknowledge them. | First I want to say this is not to offend anyone. I'm looking at this through scientific eyes so if you are extra sensitive about race and are just going to try and change my mind with rage, please don't.
When thinking about this topic, one must look at the entire picture, but here I will just focus on one aspect. It ... | 127 | There's no question that humans are tribal, and think in terms of "us" and "them". But your conclusion that color is a necessary differentiator simply isn't true. This can be disproved a number of ways, but the easiest to see is in the case of mixed families or transracial adoption. Children of difference races rais... | 45 |
ELI5: Why is Japan's Declining Population viewed as a concern when geographically they are a small nation, and overpopulation is something that seems a like a global issue? | 27 | Draw a triangle and split it in half across. At the top, draw "the elderly" and at the bottom draw "the young". This is the ideal society wherein the young people help to support the needs of the elderly. Since there are more young people than elderly, not much burden is placed on young people to support and care for t... | 48 | |
ELI5: How do video games have different glitches among seperate copies ( I fall through the floor here, someone else doesn't) when they are all the same game? | 19 | They don't, what happens is that people encounter different glitches.
And that has to do with the number of variences and the number if conditions.
If you have a glitch that makes a player stuck, but it only happens if they are holding a shotgun, and turn so that the barrel hits a shelf through a wall at a specific p... | 61 | |
ELI5: Why do hard/crunchy foods turn soft and soft foods turn hard when stale? | I was eating crunchy lemon cookies recently, left them out, and they became disgustingly soft. | 31 | Bread that becomes stale is absorbing water from the air, which allows starches in the bread to crystalize, making it crunchier. Lemon cookies contain more sugar and less starch. This starts out crystalline, but adding moisture allows those crystals to break down and soften | 18 |
[Star Wars] How was Anakin perceived after the clone wars ended? | Anakin was seen as a war hero during the clone wars but very few people knew he became Darth Vader so I'm curious what the public thought of him. Was he considered a traitor like the rest of the Jedi and killed during Order 66 or did people have a different impression of him? | 45 | iirc Palatine couldn't easily condemn him like he was able to with the other Jedi since, like you said, he pretty much propped him up to be a galactic Captain America. So the narrative he gave was that Anakin died protecting him from the Jedi traitors and was still considered a war hero until the fall of the empire. | 63 |
What's hot in philosophy of language? | I was wondering if anyone could point me towards any of the major/important debates happening in philosophy of language at the moment. | 20 | Plenty of issues: nature of propositions, semantics of indicative conditionals, semantics of generics, theories of reference, theories of meaning, indexicals, names, restricted and unrestricted quantification, counterfactuals, embedded conditionals.
If you want a good intro to the field check out William Lycan's *Phil... | 15 |
[Marvel][Doctor Who] Would Matt Murdock be affected by The Silence? | 42 | No, he'd be able to detect them just fine, and also recognize that they're not human. Even if they could use their amnesia ability on him, he would still be able to hear and smell them.
He would also be smart enough to notice that nobody in the room with the weird alien is reacting strangely. He'd probably play along ... | 47 | |
ELI5: If slaves in America were so expensive, why were they beaten and killed? | I recently saw "Twelve Years A Slave" and "Django" and it inspired me to do more research on the topic of slavery and the general associated economics. A few sources have suggested that a slave may have cost around $1200 around 1860. In today's terms, this would have been around $30,000. Put in perspective, a slave may... | 2,458 | The level of constant abuse is vastly overdone in Hollywood movies. They want to express how terrible slavery was but don't have enough time to put it into perspective. So they show it all at once when it isn't exactly realistic; such things did happen, but not likely to be as often or all at once. | 1,809 |
Do Gravitational waves affect (our perception of) time? | If we would be hit by gravitational waves would time run faster/slower for us and affect our perception of time, as gravity is able to "distort" time . | 69 | >Do Gravitational waves affect (our perception of) time?
Yes, but in reality the effect is so small that it's not even close to measurable without *extremely* precise instruments, the kind that don't exist yet.
>If we would be hit by gravitational waves would time run faster/slower for us and affect our percept... | 12 |
When I look at a source of light in the dark, I see a large halo around it. Why don't I see this effect in a well-lit environment? | 35 | You see the halo because of the contrast between the (presumably very dark) environment and the (presumably rather bright) light source. Your eyes actually scatter a significant amount of incoming light over a set pattern with broad wings -- so each bright point of light yields a halo-like image on the retina. The wi... | 12 | |
ELI5: how does chloroform knock someone out? | 18 | Il works the same way as all solvents, by passing through your nose to your brain and dissolving the fatty layer around neurons that insulate them from one another.
Depending on the dose, it will makes you dizzy, trippy, sleepy or deady.
It does not work like in movies though, you really have to breath through the stuf... | 14 | |
ELI5: What needs to happen for a plane to fly into other countries' airspaces? | When a plane crosses another country's airspace in its journey, what happens? Does that country's air force get all airplane schedules of the day ahead of time and verify that? Or is there a database of planes flying that we don't know about? | 38 | If it's playing nicely then it will have a filed a flight plan and be carrying a transponder which identifies it, so air traffic control are expecting it and know which plane it is when it appears on their radar.
If not, and it doesn't respond to air traffic control asking what it's doing, then fighters would be scram... | 25 |
ELI5:Why is classical music known by its composer, whereas lots of modern music is known by the artist who performs it, and not who writes it? | 363 | It really boils down to the fact that life is incredibly different now that it was, say, a hundred years ago.
During the classical era, most music was commissioned by people of influence. Nobility, the church, etc would hire the famous Then, the distribution of this music is not like it is today. There were no recordi... | 213 | |
ELI5: How does water "reset" bed hair? | 74 | Barber here. Your hair has certain a bonds that give it the shape that it holds, there are strong bonds that give it it's curly or straight nature. Water and heat will break down the weaker bonds that will reform when cooled/dried. Stronger bonds are broken and reformed chemically with permanent waving (perms) or chemi... | 47 | |
ELI5: Why are all bigger holidays at the end of the month? (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) | 33 | Coincidence? New years is literally the beginning of the month, as is July 4th. Christmas was moved to be closer to the pagan holidays of Yule and Saturnalia, while Halloween basically took over for Samhain (which began at sunset on Oct 31st and ended at sunset on Nov 1st). Canadian Thanksgiving is Oct 12th, right in t... | 54 | |
Why doesn’t our moon rotate, and what would happen if it started rotating suddenly? | 6,463 | It does rotate, but the time it takes to rotate around its axis is exactly equal to the time it takes to orbit the Earth. And as a consequence, we always see the same side of the Moon.
Now you might say: "That seems a bit too neat to be a coincidence!"
And you would be right, because it's not a coincidence. The tidal... | 10,615 | |
[Superheroes] Why do crooks still attempt crime when they know there's a well established superhero keeping the peace, why go to the risk when your enemy is superpowered? | 50 | Playing the odds. In Gotham, what are the chances Batman is going to be right there to stop you out of all the other crimes happening that night?
How about New York City? Sure, they have Spiderman, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four, but the city is huge with crimes happening all the time. | 56 | |
ELI5:What's up with wannabe sneezes? Why do they appear and dissapear without the act of sneezing? And why do they feel so unsatisfactory? | 32 | Sneezing is usually triggered by irritation of the nasal mucosa (tissue in your nose). When this irritation occurs it sends signals to parts of your brain to say "we're being irritated". If enough of these signals are sent, your brain will say "ok time for a sneeze" and sends signals to the parts of your body responsib... | 11 | |
ELI5: Why do animals learn basic life skills (walking, eating real food, etc) really fast compared to humans? | For example, a dog can walk and eat real food by the age of at least 6-8 weeks. A human can take up to a year or longer for those same skills. I'm sure this is the same in other animals. Why is this when humans are vastly superior to animals in capabilities. | 47 | It was an evolutionary trade-off. Our large brains helped us survive, but they made child birth difficult. As skull sized increased, either babies had to be born earlier with fewer initial abilities or the mothers had to have larger hips. The larger hips made it more difficult to run upright and thus survive, so over t... | 29 |
What to bring to an academic conference? | I’m a PhD student in the humanities getting ready to present at my first in person conference.
I’ve attended and presented in virtual conferences before, but I don’t know what to bring to this one when I’m not attending from the comfort of my own home. Do I need business cards? Should I bring snacks/a water bottle? | 65 | Keep it light. Try not to be the person with the huge bag that explodes the second you sit down. Laptop or iPad, one notebook, pen, maybe a water bottle or coffee cup. Hand sanitizer, etc. charger/battery pack.
Comfortable shoes. Questions to ask. | 59 |
[SpiderMan Far From Home] Why Did Mysterio out Spider-Man at his death? | Im clearly missing something obvious.
Obviously the end of Far from Home and the opening Premise of the latest Spidey Movie is based on Mysterio blaming Spider-Man for the terror attacks he committed and then saying his identity.
It seemed like this death rattle was planned, so he went into that London battle think... | 70 | Because he's a dick.
At the end, Spider-Man was a serious threat who was screwing up his entire plan. His reveal was a final 'Fuck You' to the guy who beat him.
He didn't go in planning for Spider-Man or dying, he simply threw together some contingency plans when the new variable became an issue. Notice how in No Way... | 153 |
[Warhammer 40k] Why haven't the Tyranids invented farming? | So, it's repeatedly reinforced that Tyranids only care about biomass. They're not malicious- they don't want to kill people or establish dominance or anything like that. They just want food. They're also clearly a very technologically advanced and intelligent species. Not in the same way a human is, sure, but advanced ... | 40 | I suspect that the Tyranid swarms, much like the Xenomorphs from *Alien*, were originally engineered as a doomsday weapon. They don't seek a purpose beyond sterilizing a planet to make enough biomass-based weaponry to sterilize the next one. | 51 |
CMV: When working on a jigsaw puzzle, looking at the picture on the box is not cheating. | I've heard a number of people state that you shouldn't look at the picture on the box when trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle, that this is somehow "cheating". I've never subscribed to this viewpoint. Whenever I work on a jigsaw puzzle, I always reference the final image that I am working towards. To me, this makes ... | 157 | I think it depends what you want out of it.
If you want the satisfaction of completing the puzzle - it doesn't matter.
If you want the mind puzzle of also figuring out what the image is, it is obviously cheating. | 49 |
ELI5:Why are China and Korea still litigating Japan's WW2 behavior in the press, while the Western WW2 countries have moved on? | If you follow news in the Pacific, stories about China and Korea demanding that Japan apologize for WW2 behavior pop up constantly. | 28 | Because Japan has been horribly negligent regarding their atrocious behavior during WW2. From ridiculous and furious denials after the war to a refusal to teach their younger generations about their transgressions. If the debate still rages it is because Japan has yet to fully make amends...if it had China and Korea wo... | 35 |
Question about whale blow hole muscles: are the muscles designed to keep the blowhole open or closed? Does it take more muscle to open? | 4,790 | They are sphincters, much like your arsehole. And also like your arsehole, there is an outer one which is consciously controlled, and an inner one which is unconsciously controlled. So it’s a bit of both really. | 3,537 | |
ELI5: How can something exceed 2 Billion Kelvin? | I saw it from [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/7h3brc/comment/dqnzhet?st=JAQ2ZGHY&sh=7e1b3682) and they were saying it came from a reactor. How can something get that hot and be measured without burning its surroundings? | 16 | Something can be really really hot, but not have enough energy to burn something
When you use a grinder on metal and the little red sparks fly off, those are crazy hot but they're so small that if they hit your pants they don't have enough energy to burn them despite their high temperature
If you bring 1 microgram of... | 15 |
ELI5: why is it easier to balance on a bike while going faster rather than slower? | 15 | NOT because of gyroscopic force, as many people think...
If you look at a bicycle, where the front wheel attaches is further forward than the head tube (where the fork attaches to the rest of the bike). This is an important design feature, because it means that when the bike veers to one side, the front wheel has a t... | 16 | |
[SHAZAM] Does the marvel family have equal powers?Does their power divide the more of them transform? | Does Billy and his foster siblings get equal speed strengh, powers etc. When they transform? Or are they weaker than Billy? | 17 | It has varied from universe to universe.
The Post-Crisis Universe had the power being literally shared between Captain Marvel, Captain Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr, and if all three were transformed, they weren't as powerful as they would be if only one was transformed.
That has not proven to be the case in ot... | 18 |
CMV: The anti-racism scene is getting a little out of control | Don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone racism at all. It’s great that these issues have been brought to light in the past year, but sometimes I feel like things get taken too far it’s absurd.
People are quick to call out every smallest little thing as being racist, and if you don’t also vocalize that, then you are “supp... | 81 | So a television show fires a host that happens to be white and his replacement happens to be black -- and you automatically assume it's the guy's skin color that got him the job. Doesn't that show how far we still need to go on the issue? | 38 |
ELI5: Why is cannibalism so bad for our health? | One thing that always comes up in any conversation about cannibalism - not that it comes up OFTEN in my circles, I just want to clarify - is that cannibalism is bad for the health of whoever or whatever is partaking. Why is this the case, and why are some species able to indulge in cannibalism on a regular basis with s... | 84 | Diseases often have trouble jumping from one species to another. The closer related to you your food is (evolution wise) the smaller the gap the disease needs to jump. This is why eating bushmeat from apes is more risky than eating some less closely related animals.
The above is true especially for viruses. Parasites ... | 145 |
What's the difference between actual sleep and just laying down when fighting off a disease? | I've currently got a cold, so my body needs rest to fight it off and recover.
What's the biological difference between having an actual sleep, or just laying horizontal and watching tv/reading ?
Is my immune system doing the same thing?
Do I actually need more sleep when sick, or does physical inactivity suffice? | 37 | Your body is doing different things when sleeping and when just laying down, resting.
While sleeping most systems of the body go in a less active mode. The brain lowers its activity and does mainly "maintenance" work, organizing/sorting and "cleaning" stuff. Heart rate goes down, breathing slows, digestive system goe... | 18 |
Is there a fundamental difference between a replicator and a transporter in Star Trek? What is the source of the matter for the replicator? | 36 | Replicators take "waste" matter and break it down and resequence it as the desired matter. The cup your morning earl grey came in is placed back on the replicator and reclaimed to provide the base matter for your nightly glass of synthale. Other waste matter is broken down in other systems and utilized the same way by ... | 17 | |
[ATLA] Since Sozin and Roku were born on the same day, what would have happened if Sozin had been the Avatar instead? | Would he still start the War? Would it even start sooner? Would he even be allowed to leave for the customary 12-year Avatar training? | 42 | The influence of the Avatar's reincarnated spirit, plus Raava being the spirit of light, means that all Avatars are compelled to be helpful and kind in pursuit of balance. (note that being kind doesn't always mean being nice to everyone. Kyoshi was a major example of that) Their world-travels and years of training mean... | 58 |
Eli5 Why does Jupiter not explode when meteors hit it considering it’s 90% hydrogen? | 833 | Combustion needs oxygen.
Even on earth it is possible to have too much fuel to oxygen to burn. Engines can “flood” with too much gasoline in the cylinder to burn, or there can be too much fuel to oxygen in the ratio to combust.
Jupiter is like 90% hydrogen and 9% helium with the rest in small percentages. Nowhere... | 1,085 | |
ELI5, how can an electrical grid be “minutes away” from month long blackouts? What would’ve happened that devoted employees avoided? | I’ve seen lots of posts lately on Texas being “minutes and seconds away” from months long blackouts. What could’ve happened, what was avoided that caused that? | 566 | Operators shut down switching equipment that was very close to overloading. Well, "seconds" may have been hyperbolic, but this equipment is extremely specialized and there are not huge stockpiles of unused equipment waiting for someone to want it. Losing too much switching equipment might lead to months of rolling bl... | 486 |
[MCU] why is it that there was a random blue blob in the middle of Missouri that killed atleast a dozen people but never even talked about by anyone? | this had to be a really random occurrence. what was the blue stuffs chemical make up were they able to get rid of it or is it still sitting there now? you would think stark might feel some interesting in this other world substance. if it was talked about in aos let me know i dont watch that show. | 179 | Because disasters happen, and tend not to be dwelt on by people not directly involved.
In 2014, eight people were killed when a building blew up in Manhattan. In 2013, 15 people were killed in an explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas. In 2008, 14 people were killed in a sugar explosion in Georgia. To the general po... | 133 |
I am full-stack software engineer and I am looking to get into robotics as a career. How screwed am I? | I've basically maxed out my abilities as a software engineer. Meaning I can build just about anything from scratch and do a decent job at it. And before you go off on me saying I don't know shit or nowhere maxed out my skill set, you are right. What I am saying is I am more so burnt out that I don't feel like improving... | 38 | Of course it's possible. Don't have to go back to school. Robotics is the combination of several disciplines tho. A good start is to start or brush up on C/C++ and maybe start learning about Embedded Systems. | 20 |
ELI5: How video games work from a code perspective. | Is it all one big while(1) loop? | 27 | Game developer here.
Basically, it's a huge loop - or multiple loops. When you launch the game, it loads stuff like textures, models, sounds and so on, and then it begins the "main loop", where it processes the input, updates all objects that need to be updated, and finally draws everything on the screen.
In practice... | 26 |
Why isn't the ISS spun for "gravity"? | 16 | The absence of (apparent) gravity is the main feature of the ISS. Why would you want to ruin that?
There was a proposed single module that would have rotated to generate low (~1/3 g) appparent gravity for astronauts to sleep in, but that didn't make it to the ISS. | 45 | |
ELI5:Why what this woman says is ridiculous (I'm not very good with computers). | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU | 444 | #1: A GUI interface. GUI means 'Graphical User Interface' - so it's saying 'interface' twice. A GUI is basically the way a piece of software looks to the user on the surface - really important, since it's how the user interacts with the software. A simple generic-looking GUI is the Windows calculator program, for examp... | 407 |
What is homeopathy and why does/doesn't it work? | 32 | Homeopathy is the notion that something that is bad (say, cyanide) can be good (a cure for cyanide) if it's diluted many, many times.
The more diluted it is, the stronger it is. So pure cyanide is bad because it'll kill you. Cyanide diluted 40 times will cure cyanide poisoning.
The reasoning has to do with water... | 52 | |
eli5: Our saliva is the first stage of digestion and starts to break down food. Why does sucking our thumbs not break down our flesh? | 983 | First: saliva is 99% water, so anything in it will be in very low concentrations (which is why you should chew thoroughly before, so you can mix the saliva and help with very small portions).
Second: most of the enzymes present are for breaking starch and fat, both of which are not found in the outside of our thumbs.
... | 947 | |
Does language define reality or not? (Sapir-Worf) | Hey all, its going to take me a moment to set this up so bear with me :)
 
I was in my class last night and the subject that was on the board was about the **social construction of reality**, which is listed as the process of people shaping reality through social interaction. Really neat! I am particularly ... | 34 | I think the important thing to remember about Sapir-Whorf is that it's not absolute. So when sociologists say that we construct our reality through through language or discourse, what they are saying is that the language we use reinforces values, norms and inequalities and our belief systems. Early proponents of Sapir-... | 14 |
ELI5: How exactly do vacuums suck up air? | All I see is a spinning cloud of dust. How do vacuum cleaners and chambers work? | 16 | We think of fans as blowing air, but if you look from the back side of the fan, it is sucking air in. Hold a candle behind the fan and you can see the smoke get sucked into the fan. All fans suck on one side and blow on the other side.
There are lots of ways to make fans, and some designs are really good at sucking. A... | 25 |
[GI JOE] Would the Cobra super weapon from retaliation actually work? | 23 | Absolutely. It's actually been a proposed weapon platform, but was scrapped due to the cost associated with it, and a UN accord which makes it a crime to deploy weapons in space.
It wouldn't be quite as shown, but the basic principle is true. | 20 | |
Does the speed of digestion change based on how hungry or starved you are? | Does the speed of digestion (acidity/strength of stomache acid?) change if you are more hungry and slow down if you are full? Or is it fairly consistent regardless of your current state of hunger? | 348 | It does not speed up. If anything it slows down due to blood being directed to other organs, this is especially true when starved. Your metabolism slows down aswell. There is no reason for the body to speed up digestion when there is nothing to digest. This is a huge waste of energy. | 42 |
ELI5: how is a serving size determined? | For example, how does the Hershey company know that a package of King size Reese cups is a serving? How does Pringles know that 1 oz of cheddar cheese Pringles is a serving? What is a serving based off of? | 21 | It's all made up.
At least in the US, there's no standard. All they're required to do is show the amount of servings in the product and what each serving represents. i.e. the company arbitrarily decides how many grams/ounces/any random measurement equals 1 serving. | 13 |
[spirited away] not entirely sure if this fits here but what do the workers at the bath house spend their money on? | We never see them leave the bath house so what’s the point in obtaining all the money they make? is it possible that they don’t have anything to spend on and this is just contributing to the theme of toxic consumerism? | 17 | That roasted lizard was a coveted snack and implied to be very expensive. There is most likely an array of exotic delights they can purchase over and under the counter. Not to mention all the food stalls on the markets. | 18 |
ELI5: How come an individual's appearance seems to "change" depending on your feelings towards the said individual? | Eg. When you fall in love with someone, they seem to look prettier/more handsome than how everyone else perceives the individual, and then they return back to "normal" once you're over him/her. | 85 | Attraction is more than just finding someone to be physically beautiful. As your desires in a mate mature the non-physical criteria start to carry more weight. As you get to know someone deeply you become aware of all of their various qualities in a way that outsiders do not. Ideally you are very attracted to many o... | 20 |
[DC/Marvel/Speedsters] When the Flash is doing anything at super-speed, does he have to be running? | I see characters in comics doing things in super speed all the time but I don't know if they have to be running in order to introduce themselves to speed.
The solution for many things in the Flash TV show is "run faster" so I'm not sure how that works for everything speed related. | 32 | Superman and Flash had sat down and had a very lengthy conversation in less than a second. The Flashs can engage their speed while lying down on bed do they can take a long nap in a microsecond.
In Marvel, there are less speedsters, but the concept is basically the same. QS can draw a picture in a second while sit... | 34 |
ELI5: How do we know the information leaked by Edward Snowden is true? | It seems like he's in a great position that *anything* he says will be considered the truth and if anybody denies that it's the truth they are just covering up for the government.
With the resources that the United States has, if this information was so destructive to the efforts of the NSA and other agencies, why are... | 18 | Because he isn't just saying things. He is providing original documents and files. So far the gov has said what he's leaked was illegal to leak because it's classified but they haven't said what he's leaked was untrue. | 31 |
ELI5: How is 2.5 gallons enough water to get our waste from the toilet to the sewer, and eventually to the water treatment plant? | Edit: OK, I am not sure where I got 2.5 gallons from because it turns out standard toilets in the US are 1.6 gallons, as the comment below states. It still seems crazy to me that 1.6 gallons can push waste all the way from the toilet to the sewer. I feel like it would stop at some point and need more water to get to th... | 21 | It just has to make it to the sewer which is easy enough especially as they're usually sloped on the way there. The sewers already have other water coming from any number of sources plus may be fed a trickle at the head of the pipe to keep things moving. | 12 |
When I yawn while listening to music, why does the pitch briefly shift down? | The change in pitch lasts for the duration of the yawn, while the ears are "expanded."
Also, you are now yawning.
EDIT: It really is the pitch, the volume changes but the pitch of the note definitely does as well. Like an old gramophone slowing down or a car horn dropping in pitch as it drives by. | 17 | When you yawn or swallow, your Eustachian tube opens to equalize the pressure in your middle ear. Your middle ear is also the location of the three middle ear bones (*malleus*, *incus*, *stapes*) that act to transmit vibrations from your eardrum to your cochlea so you can hear. Thus, if you yawn or swallow, the Eustach... | 24 |
ELI5: How do people who crack games get said games to crack ? | How do people who crack games get the games before they crack them? How do they get the source files on their pcs so they can crack them ? | 9,307 | A man is reading a list of instructions on what to do. Let's say this particular list of instructions tells him how to let you into a theme park. As he goes through the list of instructions he asks you for your ticket, but you don't have one so you can't get in today. After his shift you know where he keeps his instruc... | 9,458 |
ELI5: What is money laundering and how does it work? | 40 | Lets say you're a bully with a racket extorting lunch money from other kids. Eventually you get enough for a new bicycle, but you can't buy one without your parents wondering about where you got the money. So you open up a lemonade stand. They can't watch you all the time so as far as your parents know you're selling a... | 112 |
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